WORCESTER — The state Supreme Judicial Court has affirmed the convictions of a Worcester man found guilty of assault and firearm charges in a 2007 shooting on Gates Street.

In a seven-page ruling issued Friday, the state's highest court affirmed Delanie Humphries' 2010 Worcester Superior Court convictions for two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and single counts of carrying a firearm without a license, carrying a loaded firearm without a license and possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card. The court also affirmed the denial of Mr. Humphries' motion for a new trial.

Charged as a joint venturer in the case, Mr. Humphries was sentenced to 3 to 8 years in state prison and was placed on probation for 7 years.

According to testimony at Mr. Humphries' trial, he and Luis Acevedo got into a fight on Gates Street on the night of Oct. 26, 2007, after Mr. Humphries' girlfriend had been asked to leave a birthday party at 75 Gates St. for the 4-year-old daughter of Andrew P. Robinson and Shaonte Bottom.

Ms. Bottom told the jury that Mr. Humphries called out "Bobo" during the altercation and Mr. Humphries' cousin, Rashayn Holley, immediately emerged from a behind a tree in University Park and opened fire with a handgun.

Mr. Holley then ran into the park, and Mr. Acevedo and Mr. Robinson got into a white Mercedes-Benz and began circling the park in search of him, according to Ms. Bottom. More shots rang out, and the vehicle was struck by bullets, investigators said.

Mr. Acevedo and Mr. Robinson were uninjured, but were shot to death five days later in their North Ashland Street apartment. No one has been charged in the double slaying.

Prosecutors later dropped charges against Mr. Holley in connection with the Gates Street shooting, citing the unavailability of a key government witness.

The state Appeals Court affirmed Mr. Humphries' convictions and the denial of his motion for a new trial and the SJC took the case after allowing Mr. Humphries' application for further appellate review.

Mr. Humphries' appellate lawyer, Thomas D. Frothingham, argued before the SJC that his client's firearm convictions should be reversed because the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Humphries' "co-venturer," Mr. Holley, had not been issued a license to carry a loaded firearm.

Assistant District Attorney Terrence M. Reidy, who prosecuted the case, offered no evidence at trial to establish that Mr. Holley was not licensed to carry a firearm or to possess ammunition, according to the SJC ruling.

Assistant District Attorney Stephen J. Carley maintained that Mr. Humphries was required to raise the existence of a license issued to Mr. Holley as a defense and to produce some evidence of that license before the burden shifted to the prosecution to prove the absence of a license beyond a reasonable doubt.

In Friday's ruling, written by Judge Fernande R.V. Duffly, the court concluded that a defendant charged with a possessory firearm offense on a theory of joint venture is not required to produce evidence that his co-venturer was licensed before the burden shifts to the prosecution to prove the absence of a license.

The defendant must, however, raise the defense of a license before trial under the rules of criminal procedure, the court said.

"Because the defendant in this case failed to raise the defense of license, as required by rule 14, we do not reverse his firearms convictions on this basis," Judge Duffly wrote.

The SJC also rejected Mr. Humphries' arguments that his trial counsel, Damian N. Riddle, was ineffective and that Judge Peter W. Agnes Jr., since appointed to the state Appeals Court, erred in his instructions to the jury on the law.